I'm guessing you mean 'objects' One thing about attaching seperate parts to a 'characture figure' is that when they move they are liable to come 'apparently' detached from the rest of the figure. ie. An arm moves up, shows a split between arm and shoulder. Can possibly be hidden under shell? (but then there is a chance the arm could pass 'through' the shell when lifting). Personally, i'd continue as one object, but perhaps make a copy and 'detach faces' and keep all seperate objects for possible future use/experimentation.

Cool Crabby. Looking forward to see him scuttling around the beach, forward and back from the waves, lol. (as they do. Funny things.)

Is crabby going to lose some bits, that move on their own? lol. Truly tho, i'm trying to think of advantages/uses of creating a figure made of seperate figures. ? Skinning the 1 object allows independant movement of pincers, legs, eyestalks etc.....

Thanks, neiro.. Did you ever show your crab here? (errrrr... that does sound a bit weird, doesn't it...)

Here, I did a bit of rework ... going to try johnar's suggestion of skinning. I am a bit unsure about it. I neglected to save the parts before subdividing them. I don't know how well skinning works with subdvided parts...

If you subdivided by going 'build -> convert to subdivided' then all is fine. You can double click on 'object crabby' and change the 'Divisions - Working' from 'Working-2 and Final-3' to 'Working-0 and Final-1' . That'll 'un-subdivide' it. Then just select crabby and go Build -> convert to mesh. All good, its back to and unsubdivided mesh and you're good to go. (i would definately make a copy. Either save an8 as a different file, and/or, select crabby -> copy -> object -> new, and paste.

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I don't know how well skinning works with subdvided parts...

It works really well. Personally, i would subdivide before skinning. (skin the subdivided crabby).

In figure mode. add crabby to bone above root bone.(please see EDIT at bottom of post) If that bone is busy, already a leg bone or something, then select root bone and go 'build -insert bone' and add crabby to the new bone. (delete crabby object from figure, select new bone above root bone and go 'build -> add object' and choose crabby from list of objects. ((subdivided)). Move him around to match existing bones as best as possible. Now, with nothing selected, click the skinning button. With skinning button selected, click on the new bone. (or the bone that you added crabby to). In the options that pop up, select 'No.- Weights. Voala, crabby is all one colour. The whole crabby is attached/influenced, by that bone. The other bones will have a variety of different colors, as you will soon see. Change view to flat shaded or wire, so you can see the polys. Flat shaded is good to start. The default weight brush can be a little large and weak for some figures. Go to 'build -> weight brush'and try strength 0.8 and Radius 12. Alrighty, good to go. Right click on a bone to select it, now with LMB, click and drag on some points surrounding that bone, you'll see the color change. (sometimes the bone color is same as original bone color, which can be tricky, but if so, try another bone and you'll quickly get the understanding of how it works. The 'paint' is actually only affecting the points. (or intersections of edges). Paint the area that you want that bone to influence, and then move on to the next bone) I gotta get going now Arik, and so ends part 1 of my little spiel about skinning. Will pop back later, and if you're finding any of this helpfull, i'll carry on with a list of tips and tricks etc. Cool. Gotta go 4 now. Happy skinning .

EDIT I just had look at the pic you posted of the bones you have. I would add crabby to the second bone above the root bone. When he's added, and b4 you skin, try arranging the bones a little more precisely in some areas. Ideally, the bones will be 'inside' the object. Bone sizes/diameters can be changed by double clicking on bone. Default diameter is 1, often, for finer areas, 0.5 is a good diameter. The bones can be added/deleted and manipulated freely while crabby is attached to the 1 bone, before starting to skin. The perfect rig sits inside the body.

These pics, not perfect, but shows how bones are inside fingers. If you can make bones 'inside' pincers, eyestalks etc, you'll get better results. Note. Sometimes when skinning a subdivided mesh, it will appear to go unsubdivided while youre skinning. Dont worry about that, its still subdivided.

Heh, was already on it before catching your message, johnar... while you can't see the colors of the bone-weights, you can see how I set the bone angles, and had them defaulted to the pose shown for the figure. I remade the legs, and still need to remake the pincer arms... decide just how I want to do the eyes and eyestalks... and then need some fine-tuning of the weight-painting for a bit better appearance of the bends at the various knee-joints. A few problem areas that limit what I can do skinning, but after all, we're dealing with a basic program here.

lol. Sorry Arik, i sorta knew you were already on to it, your message caught me in an over helpfull go-fast mode, and once i got started i just had to 'carry on'. lol.Crabbys' Lookn good. I've got a couple of animating tips. Blah blah blah blah blah...........

kreator: Of course I remember that! "Strange Worlds" contest for Anim8or.com and our original AnimAnon forum... and one of the more involved anim8or compilations ever shown to display just what all anim8or can do! Still great stuff after all this time!

johnar: Your comments, suggestions and help are always welcome. Many benefit from your advice here, regardless of whether I've pigheadedly gone forward on my own or not ;-)

I was just thinking, my oldest granddaughter is 8, and has loved making things in Minecraft for over a year now... Perhaps she is ready for anim8or, now that she has a pretty good reading comprehension!

Alright, so... Crabby as you see above has his legs set with all the angles... and each is at "Default" setting. When viewed in "Object" mode his legs are spread straight out, and in "Figure" mode his bones all line up similarly, except that the "Default" angles give them the pose of the legs being bent.

Now though, I put Crabby into "Sequence" and his "Default" is gone, legs are splayed straight out again. Is that supposed to happen? The whole reason I set the "Default" was so his legs would be in a crab-stand position, not to still be spread-eagled. It's been so long I forget...